This is the blog for CARG, the Coronary Artery Rehabilitation Group, based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. It will contain items of interest to CARG's own members and anybody else interested in the latest news about rehabilitation and heart-related matters. Canadian charitable number: 89675 0163 RR 0001 || e-mail: carg.ca@gmail.com || website: carg.ca || Blog disclaimer

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

People recovering from a heart attack or severe chest pain are much less likely to suffer another heart-related problem or to die from one if they take a new blood-thinning drug along with standard anti-clotting medicines, a large study finds. But this benefit had a cost: a greater risk of serious bleeding, usually in the digestive tract. Still, some doctors said the drug, Xarelto, could become a new standard of care for up to a million Americans hospitalized each year for these conditions. A low dose of the drug substantially cut the risk of dying of any cause during the study. "Mortality trumps everything," so a drug that improves survival is a win, said Dr. Paul Armstrong of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He had no role in the study, discussed at an American Heart Association conference in Florida and published online by the New England Journal of Medicine. The study was sponsored by the drug's makers - Johnson & Johnson and Bayer Healthcare - and some researchers work or consult for the companies. Xarelto is approved now at higher doses for preventing strokes in people with a common heart rhythm problem and for preventing blood clots after joint surgeries. It works in a different way than aspirin and older blood thinners do